Georgetown Company Founder Marshall Rose Dies at 88

Marshall Rose, the founder and chair of the Georgetown Company, died on Feb. 15. He was 88.

Rose’s cause of death was complications from Parkinson’s disease, his stepdaughter told The New York Times. He is survived by his wife, actress Candice Bergen, two children and six grandchildren.

Rose’s most significant contributions to New York City still reverberate today. As chair of the New York Public Library’s board of trustees in the 1990s, he helped create the Science, Industry and Business Library in the former B. Altman emporium on Madison Avenue and renovated the main reading room in the Fifth Avenue research library.

His real estate knowledge was also critical in turning Bryant Park from a dilapidated drug den into one of the city’s most vital green spaces. He was instrumental in preventing a parking garage from being built underneath the park, saving the space for book stacks instead.

Rose founded Georgetown in 1978. Notable projects for the firm have included the Easton Town Center mall in Columbus, Ohio; the early 1990s renovation of Madison Square Garden; and the headquarters of Barry Diller’s InterActive Corporation in West Chelsea, completed nearly two decades ago.

He was born in Brooklyn and brought up in Brighton Beach, ultimately earning a bachelor’s degree in economics from City College. He practiced law and worked on real estate matters for investment bank Lazard Freres before jumping into property development.

Before Georgetown, Rose led the Arlen Realty and Development Corporation, as well as its subsidiary, the E.J. Korvette discount chain. Rose stayed on the real estate scene in his later years, advising Central Synagogue to sell its air rights to JPMorgan Chase a decade ago; the bank’s acquisition went towards its looming tower at 270 Park Avenue.

“He was a model of civic virtue and commitment,” Gordon Davis, former parks commissioner and president of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, told the Times.

— Holden Walter-Warner